Organ and Tissue Donations Encouraged

April marks National Donate Life Month, and Middlesex Hospital encourages you to become an organ or tissue donor.

“I believe in it,” says Dr. Peter Pace, a pulmonologist and director of critical care at the Hospital. “Out of the death or a loved one, you can literally save multiple lives.”

To help with organ and tissue donations, the Hospital works with New England Donor Services. Hospital medical staff members identify potential donors and notify New England Donor Services. New England Donor Services then talks to patients and their families and ultimately ensures that any donations are received.

“It’s a very respectful process,” Pace says, adding that patients and families do not feel pressured and that New England Donor Services is very sensitive to their needs. “It’s a beautiful thing to at least consider.”

According to New England Donor Services, about half of all adults in the United States are registered as organ and tissue donors. However, the number of people who need transplants continues to outpace the number of donor organs available. While more than 33,600 transplants helped patients in 2016, the organization says there is still a great need for donations. It says that 22 people die each day because the organs they need are not donated in time.

As a donor, you can choose what you want to donate and for what purpose, and it won’t change how hard doctors work to save your life. Donation is only an option when a patient is declared clinically and legally dead.

Dr. Rachel Lovins, chair of the Hospital’s Medical Department, says she believes patient and doctor education is important to both increasing the number of potential organ donors and to making sure that the process goes as smoothly as possible. People need to know that they can still have open casket services and that their organs and tissue won’t be sold or used for a purpose other than saving or enhancing a life, she says.

People of all ages and medical histories can be considered potential donors. Your medical condition at the time of death will determine what organs and tissues can be donated.